The Hidden Lands

Chapter 10- Catnip & Pizza

kai

I was so late; I ran up the gravel drive already out of breath. The lights in the house were on and also in the stables, great someone was already there. I went to the house first, a boy about my age sat on the couch, experimenting with a large screen with pictures dancing across it.

"Hello?" I said carefully, he turned to face me with his hand twitching towards his belt. "I'm Kai," I said quickly "The Terran, please don't try to cut me," I said walking towards him.

"Her highness is with the horses I think," he said with a mocking tone "she'll probably want to meet you." He jumped up quickly and cut a sprig of herbs from a window box, "Tell her Archer sent this, so you don't get attacked." He handed me the leaves, they were unfamiliar but they weren't pretty and they smelled disgusting.

"Alright," I said, unsure what else to say to the boy with a knife, I went back out the door.

I entered the stables and saw that one of the horses, a large gray speckled Arabian, was being brushed in the middle of the room. "Princess Jayde?"

"Good day, call me Jayde" A girl said, popping up from behind the animal, "You must be Kai, I'm glad you could make it." Her dark auburn hair was a knotted mess and her eyes were glowing with excitement, she didn't look anything like a princess.

"The boy in the house told me to give these to you," I told her, holding out the leaves, she took them and frowned.

"Of course he did, I'll have to rip that box out of the window." she complained, her pupils narrowing into slits, sort of like a cat's. "Do you know what this is?" She said patiently, I shook my head earnestly "This is catnip, and Archer in there obviously thinks he's funny." her tiny frame shook and she pressed a hand to her head and closed her eyes.

"I'm not going to shift like this, he's not worth it." she muttered then looked up at my confused face. "I'm a nymph," she explained "Archer found that out the hard way and I doubt he'll let me forget it soon." I raised an eyebrow, so she was a cat nymph of some sort. The girl finished grooming the mare and traded her for olive dun stallion.

"Are these all your horse's?" I asked unsure what to do.

"Sort of, King Rowan supplied them for the mission, Archer, Lyla, and You each get one." She nodded towards the stalls and I saw that there were exactly four. "That brown one though," She gestured at a large stallion with a dark brown coat that was almost black "He's mine." I walked over to the clay colored stallion and picked up a brush.

"You like this one?" She asked me, patting the horse's neck. I did, this horse reminded me of wet clay on a pottery wheel, he even smelled like earth, which most likely meant he liked to roll in the dust but still.

"Yeah, he's pretty" Pretty was an understatement but oh well.

"It's settled then, he's yours and Archer can pick one if he ever bothered to come out here."

We finished brushing down my new horse, whom I'd started calling Opal because of his warm champagne colored coat, and headed inside.

Archer was asleep on the coach, a viking based play on the box, TV it said on remote.

I headed for the kitchen, hoping it was stocked. I pulled open the large self cooling ice box searching for something edible.

"I was thinking of making this pizza tonight," she held out an icy circle, covered in cheese and circles of meat scattered across the top. "We won't want to eat too much, it'll slow us down and we'll need to train tomorrow." Jayde was poking through the various cabinets.

"Sounds good, can I help with anything?" My mother had made sure I learned to cook as a boy, just so I'd never starve if I had ingredients.

"Sure, you can cut the packing and get it onto the pan," she nodded to a circular pan on the stovetop. I did as she asked and watched her press buttons on the oven.

The front door swung open, a girl stood in the entryway, her dark hair windswept. She was out of breath, like she'd run the whole way.

"Sorry I'm late!" she announced so loudly even Archer sat up.